Explosion Starts Oil Fire

Layout:

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Mark Video Segment:


	begin


	end

play

See someone or something you recognize? TAMI Tagging

Click begin and end to mark the segment you wish
to tag. Then enter your comment and click on Tag!

To: tamitags@texasarchive.org

[Hide] Copy and paste this link to an email or instant message:

[Hide] Right click this link and add to bookmarks:

GLIFOS-social media video

About the video

“Remarkable pictures of a burning gusher that shakes houses seven miles away when it ‘goes up’ and which defies all attempts to quench its roaring flames.” [From original Universal Newsreel content sheet.] This Universal Newsreel contains dramatic footage of an oil well fire near Conroe, Texas. Men approach the blaze behind protective shields and a crane pours dirt over the flames. Conroe, Texas, like many East Texas towns, enjoyed an oil boom in the 1930s. This newsreel is believed to depict the Conroe well fires of 1933. Two wells a mile apart, the Standard of Kansas No. 1 Madeley and the Southland Oil No. 2 Cummings, both burst into flame the morning of January 12th. The Madeley was particularly difficult to get under control, with nitroglycerine blasts and dirt fill proving unsuccessful. The well cratered, swallowing the derrick and other nearby rigs, resulting in huge damages. After drilling many relief wells, the fires were eventually brought under control, but had created a large oil-filled “crater well” in the Conroe oilfield.